Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University

Thomas Albert Howard

An original synthesis of modern German intellectual and political history, the history of higher education, and the history of modern theology

Explores the influence of German higher education and theology in the United States - hence of relevance to a variety of academic communities

Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University

Thomas Albert Howard

Description

In shaping the modern academy and in setting the agenda of modern Christian theology, few institutions have been as influential as the German universities of the nineteenth century. This book examines the rise of the modern German university from the standpoint of the Protestant theological faculty, focusing especially on the University of Berlin (1810), Prussia's flagship university in the nineteenth century. In contradistinction to historians of modern higher education who often overlook theology, and to theologians who are frequently inattentive to the social and institutional contexts of religious thought, Thomas Albert Howard argues that modern university development and the trajectory of modern Protestant theology in Germany should be understood as
interrelated phenomena.

Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University

Thomas Albert Howard

Table of Contents

I. Introduction 1. Theology, Modernity, and the German University2. On the State and Modern Science `in the German sense'3. Plan of Study4. Broader Considerations, or `the Pathos of Modern Theology'II. Sacra Facultas and the Coming of German Modernity Introduction5. The Medieval Legacy6. Humanism, the Reformation, and the Universities7. The Eighteenth Century: Decline and Critique8. The Way Forward: Halle and Gottingen9. `Torchbearer or Trainbearer?' The Faculties and Immanuel KantIII. Wissenschaft, and the Founding of the University of Berlin Introduction10. Revolutionary Times and the Ascendancy of Wissenschaft11. `A New Creation'12. Theology and the Idea of the University13. Early Operations: Berlin's Theological Faculty, 1810-181914. `Renewing Protestantism': Schleiermacher and the Challenge of Modern Theological EducationIV. An Erastian Modernity? Church, State, and Education in Early Nineteenth-Century Prussia Introduction15. Church and State before 180616. 1806 and the Prussian Kultusministerium17. `A Realm of the Intelligence': Minister Altenstein and his LegacyV. Theologia between Science and the State Introduction18. Historical Trends and Developments, 1810-191819. The Rise and Fall of `Theological Encyclopedia'20. History, Commemoration, and University21. `The Age of German Footnotes': Visitors from Abroad, Admirers from Afar22. `The Crisis of the Theological Faculty':
Lagarde, Overbeck, and HarnackConclusion: Janus Gazing

Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University

Thomas Albert Howard

Author Information

Thomas Albert Howard is Associate Professor of History at Gordon College, in Wenham, Massachusetts, and the founding director of the Jerusalem & Athens Forum, an undergraduate honors program. He completed his Ph.D. in European intellectual history at the University of Virginia. He is also the author of Religion and the Rise of Historicism (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University

Thomas Albert Howard

Reviews and Awards

"Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University makes a welcome contribution to understanding the oddness of theology in the context of the modern research university."--Donald Wibe, Toronto Journal of Theology

"Howard's book is a welcome addition to studies of nineteenth-century Christian thought, modern intellectual history, and university history. Ably researched and skillfully written, the work distinguishes itself from common fare by its interdisciplinary reach. Howard's presentation is itself a thought-provoking testament to "Berlin's" legacy." --Church History

"Howard's story tells how ingenious leaders, chiefly Friedrich Schleiermacher, rescued the study of theology when German universities made a wholesale turn toward dominance by science and the state. The ironic result was that German theology became an arbiter for all of Christendom while departments of theology in German universities were hanging on by their fingernails. Whether they sacrificed requisite independence to do so is the question that Howard raises masterfully at the end."--Christian Century